8 Baron Cuvier's Historical Eloge of Baron Ramond. 



to his trial, which would have furnished to his persecutor 

 other pretexts for completing his ruin. In two hours after . 

 his arrest, M. Ramond succeeded in communicating with him 

 in spite of his keeper, in obtaining possession of his papers, and 

 in destroying every thing which could have complicated his case. 



With regard to the trial itself, the great object was to prove 

 that the diamonds had been stolen by those whom the cardi- 

 nal believed to be charged with returning them to the queen. 

 For this purpose it was necessary to trace them, and it was 

 soon found that they had passed into England. M. Ramond 

 resolved to go there instantly. In vain did the Minister, the 

 Cardinal's enemy, who had got notice of his design, try to ar- 

 rest him on the road by a Lettre de Cachet. He had ob- 

 tained secret information of it from M. de Malesherbes, and 

 having taken a circuitous route, he arrived safely in England. 



The nature of his enterprize, as he himself said, put him in 

 communication with the most degraded beings on both sides of 

 the channel ; but he also found in the society of men of ho- 

 nour frequent opportunities of escaping from this pestiferous 

 atmosphere, and of seeing England in the most favourable 

 point of view. An account of his journey was written, and 

 doubtless it would have possessed all the interest of that which 

 he performed in Switzerland and the Pyrenees; but unfortu- 

 nately it was carried off from him in 1814, as we shall pre- 

 sently see. 



By means of his sagacity and exertions, M. Ramond suc- 

 ceeded in establishing, by the clearest testimony, how and by 

 whom the diamonds were carried oif and sold in London. 

 This was the most complete justification of the Cardinal in the 

 principal point of the affair ; but in order to rouse his courage 

 and arrange his defence, it became indispensable that he should 

 be made acquainted with these discoveries. Detained in the 

 Bastile with the most rigorous secrecy, nobody was permitted 

 to approach him ; not even one of his relations durst hazard 

 an imprudent step. M. Ramond risked himself on this occa- 

 sion ; he entered the Bastile without the knowledge of the go- 

 vernor, and as it were in spite of him. At last the case came 

 to be tried, and he had the pleasure of seeing the Cardinal and 

 Cagliostro freed from every charge, and of bringing down 

 merited punishment on those who had involved this unfortu- 



